One friend in ministry commented to me the other day that this fourteen year old girl she is working with doesn’t think that Jesus is real because “so many bad things have happened in her life”.

Often this is a topic that pops up in conversations I too have with Christians and non-Christians alike. The problem of evil seems so hard, and so big, that it makes people ask why God would let such horrendous things happen.

We see this continuously in our news, in troubles within our own families, and even in the places we turn for leisure like Netflix’s documentary series Making a Murder. Everyone’s right, the world does suck!

In those conversations we tend to think about sin and explain why the world is this way. While it is important to do that, and explain that the fall brought sin, death, and suffering into the world (Gen 3); it is also incredibly profound that nearly everyone notices that this is not the way it is supposed to be.

God created a world that was perfect and good (Gen 1). Though humans stuffed it up, it is important to encourage believers and non-believers to think about God’s promise of restoration (1 Peter 5:10; Acts 3:19-21). As Christians, we already have a taste of this restoration as we truly are new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). But a day will come where evil and suffering will pass, for God is just and he will put sin and Satan in their place for good and his people will dwell with him forever (Rev 21:1-5).

So take heart! Though some days the world is grim, there is great hope and comfort found in the person of Jesus who conquers all and promises to come again.